Paris' Jardin des Plantes (Botanical Garden)

Would you say gardening in general is less in the French psyche than the English?

Probably so. I was amazed at the love for Nature English people have when I got here, it wasn't something I noticed before in my country.

I just think that traditional French gardens are so symmetrical, square and tidy, everything is pruned heavily to fit a geometrical scheme, and although this can be beautiful, it isn't what Nature has intended to do, it isn't particularly good for wildlife, and in my view it isn't as pretty as what English and Japanese gardens try to do... I grew up in Paris, and most parks and gardens are there just filled with gravel, whilst trees are put in cages (!) and generally you are not even allowed to sit on the grass! When I came in London, I marvelled at the large, green parks filled with full sized trees and so many varieties of birds, with squirrels, and even foxes running around. In France, it is unthinkable to have foxes roaming around, the hunting lobby is quite powerful, and people just want to control everything... As a result our bees are disappearing, and so much damage is done to the ecology that it is so sad... Even the good gardeners that I know there don't think anything of spraying the whole garden with pesticides and insecticides, killing ladybirds, hedgehogs and so much more of the valuable wildlife that there is... But, hopefully things are starting to change and I am going there in April to see what the eco-friendly gardeners are up to, so I might come back with a different opinion :)

There must be a strong Versailles influence on gardens, which would be understandable but the lack of celebration or even consideration for nature or it's welfare is a shock. The French are the last to be accused of a lack of sensitivity to the finer points of life, yet they are enjoyed without the need for a connection to what we here would regard as at least somewhat necessary and quite often la raison de vivre...

No my French isn't good, I just thought it was nice to put it such for you.

Interesting photos.

Lovely set of pics... :o)

@Servernside, you are right, it all comes from Le Nôtre! That's not to say that all French gardens are like that, for example Monet's garden and many others have managed to leave the geometry out and work with the grand folly of Nature, but generally public park and people's garden tend to follow this idea... I didn't enjoy the full beauty of Nature until I came to live here, that's for sure :)